The story of Pythias and Damon is popular in the West. It has become an idiom in English. The two friends of Athens stand as the symbol of true friendship. It is said that they followed the friendship as propagated by the Greek philosopher Pythagoras. That is what exactly the great Tamil poet Tiruvalluvar, author of Tamil Veda called Tirukkural said,

“Friendship is not that which shines as a smile in the face; Friendship is that which shines as a joy in the soul within” – 786

Another translation of the same couplets runs like this,

“Identity of feelings alone count for close friendship for which,

Constant companionship is not really necessary”-785.

“A surface smile in the face is not friendship, genuine affection,

Springs from the heart and lights up the face”-786.

The story Of Pythias is as follows,

Pythias and Damon were great friends. Once they visited Syracuse where the tyrant Dionysius was ruling. The king suspected the intention of their visit and arrested Pythias for anti- state activities. He passed a death sentence on him after rejecting all his arguments. His friend Damon felt very sad and tried to help him.

At the same time Pythias’ mother was suffering from serious illness. So Pythias asked permission to go and see her before he dies. But Dionysius was not ready to believe him. He thought he would never come back. Damon, who was his true friend, told the king that he was ready to be a hostage in the place of Pythias. The tyrant agreed to that proposal. Damon was put in jail.

The days passed; now everyone was waiting anxiously from Pythias return. When the deadline was about to expire, Damon was taken to the execution platform. But Damon was dead sure that he would come back. At that time there was a great commotion when people saw Pythias running towards the place. He came in and asked for pardon for the delay and explained that untimely and unseasonal weather stopped his ship. He begged the king to release Damon and execute him as per the original order.

Whoever heard this started shedding tears and appreciated the great friendship between Pythias and Damon. It moved even the stony-hearted Dionysius and he ordered the release of both Pythias and Damon. From that time their name became proverbial for true friendship.

Similar Story in Tamil literature.

Pythias incident happened in the fifth century BCE. A few centuries later another story happened in Tamil Nadu in South India. There was a king by name Kopperum Chozan. He had problems with his sons about ruling the country. Sangam Tamil poets were honest and bold advisers. One of the poets advised the Choza king to hand over the kingdom to his wards and go to forest life—Vanaprastha—third stage in a Hindu’s life. The king said that he wanted to fast unto death. It is called ‘Prayopavesa’ in Sanskrit and found in the Kishkintha Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana. Whoever dies that way goes directly to heaven. They face the holy Northern Direction and starve to death. Several people used to join such a venture because they knew it is a ‘direct flight ticket’ to Heaven. As was the custom lot of scholars and poets joined the Choza king in the fast. One poet by name Pothiar was refused a seat in the hall by the king. He told him that the poet should go back home and can join only after the birth of a male child, which is required to go to heaven according to Hindu Law Books. He went back and came back after the death of the group and lamented. All this information is in Purananuru (verses 213-223), part of 2000 year old Sangam literature.

Here is the interesting bit.

Choza king asked his colleagues to reserve a seat for a poet named Pisir Anthaiar of the neighbouring Pandya kingdom. All other poets in the hall were surprised because the king and the poet never met. They told the king not to get disappointed by expecting him.

Then the king told them in a verse,

“There in the distant Pandya country

A poet from the town of Pisir is a very close friend.

Even if he does not come when I had lot of money, he would definitely come to see me when I am in distress” – Purananuru verse 215

The king’s words did not go waste. Pisir Anthaiyar came there just on time and sat with the king fasting until death.

This is an example for true friendship like the Pythias- Damon story.

Greek story of Pythias and Damon was made into films in several languages. Like Pisir- Choza story we have stories of Kuchela/Sudama – Krishna friendship. The very first chapter of Panchatantra fables is about true friendship.

Ancient Greeks believed in several virtues like Hindus. Pythias story shows,

1.His love for his mother; Hindus say Matha, Pitha , Guru are goods.

2.Pythias also kept his words like Hindus. All ancient foreign visitors said, ‘in India there is no written legal document and all is done by word of mouth’. Hindu myths say they are like the legendary Harischandra.

3. We have umpteen examples about true friendship. When Karna was insulted that he being a commoner, should not participate in Royal Olympic Games, Duryodana made him a king in a second. Karna was loyal to Duryodana till his last minute.

So we see many similarities between the legends of Hindus and Greeks. One is also reminded of the great sacrifice of Sydney Carton in the novel of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

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I am not giving a comprehensive list of assassinations that happened in Indian history. Just to compare the less known assassination that happened in Tamil Nadu I am giving some known attacks. As far as we know it started in 73 BCE and went up to 1991. Tamil poet Tiruvalluvar and Vishnusarman of Panchatantra also mentioned such assassinations.

Devabhuti, the last of the Sunga emperors, who was a weak, dissipated and debauched monarch was assassinated in his bed in dark by a slave girl dressed as his queen. He was killed in 73 BCE on the orders of his minister Vasudeva.

Julius Caesar was assassinated in Rome around that time. And his own friend Brutus was part of the conspiracy. All of us know the ‘Et tu Brute?’ (You too Brutus!) exclamation of Julius Caesar.

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by N Godse in 1948. In our own times Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her own bodyguard on 31 October 1984. Later her own son Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a LTTE girl from Si Lanka, near Chennai in 1991.

Tiruvalluvar, author of Tamil Veda, Tirukkural says,

An enemy will twist his words as he bends his bow;

Neither will forbade any good- 827

The meaning is

Do not be misled by the politeness or courtesy of language on the part of enemies. The enemy bends his words as he bends his bow, which is not for your good.

In the next couplet the poet says,

The enemy’s hands raised in salutation may conceal a weapon,

So too, his tears of sympathy are not to be trusted.

This is what happened in the case of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.

In Periya Puranam written around 12th century CE by Sekkizar, we have a similar story. It is a sad and heart breaking story.

Here is a summary:

There was a king by name Meyporul Nayanar ruling Chedi country from Tirukkovalur. He was a just king and conquered the nearby territories. He was a great Shiva devotee and respected any one coming with the Saivite symbols such as Vibhuti (holy ash), Rudraksha (holy garland) in saffron or white cloths.

Muthanathan, a near by king who was defeated several times by Meyporul, realised that he would never be able to defeat Meyporul by honest means. So he conspired and took the guise of Shiva devotee. He hid a dagger in a bundle of palm leaf manuscripts and approached the palace.

As usual all the gates were wide open for the ‘great devotee’ and he entered the palace room where the king was lying in bed with his wife. Knowing a person coming in an untimely hour, king’s body guard Dattan prevented him from entering the bedroom. But yet Muthanathan introduced himself as a great Guru and he had come with a rare manuscript to show it to the king. Datta could not stop him any more. When the ‘devotee/guru’ entered the bed room, the queen was surprised and got up suddenly. But the king showed all the respect due to any Shiva’s follower. When he asked the reason for his visit at the dead of night, disguised Muthanathan told the king that he had some rare Agama manuscripts and wanted to teach the king.

He also insisted that he should be alone without the queen to listen to the secret doctrines. The king readily obliged and came back all alone. Muthanathan opened the bundle and took the dagger and stabbed the king.

Hearing the commotion, his body guard Datta rushed into the room and caught hold of the assassin. But Meyporul told his bodyguard,

‘Datta, He is our man’. Please take him out of the town with full security and leave him alone; make sure that no one harms him! Datta did as he was commanded.

All this happened just because the respect for the external Saivite (religious) symbols! But Meyporul was made a saint among the 63 Famous Saivite Saints and worshipped in all the Shiva temples in Tamil Nadu.

We hear lot of stories even today that terrorists come in different disguises, particularly abusing religious faith and symbols. Since Tiruvalluvar also sings about hidden arms, he might have heard such stories.

Sekkizar, author of Periya Puranam, describes the appearance of Muthanathan in Saivite gear. ‘He appeared white outside (with smeared holy ash) but inside he was black. His mind was full of bad things’.

The world has not changed much from the days of Devabhuti. Even before Devabhuti, Manu gives a list of kings who were dethroned or killed. Vena was one of them who met a violent death from the revolting general public. Something like French Revolution must have happened and Vena was ‘guillotined’.

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Two thousand years ago Muranchiyur Mudingarayar sang about Tamil Chera King Uthiyan Cheralathan. Around that time Roman poet Horace who composed poems in Latin also sang about kings. P Arunachalam compared both the poets and published an article in 1898. Before you read the comparison, I wanted to make some points on the same poem (verse 2 in Purananuru).

Muranchiyur Mudinagarayar’s poem is part of the oldest part of Purananuru, one of the 18 books of Sangam Tamil literature.

There are some interesting historical information as well as similes. This poem explodes all the Aryan- Dravidian myths. There was no such division.

1.The poet’s name is in Sanskrit Mudi Nagarajan. ‘The one who has snake on the head’- is the literal translation. It may be Lord Shiva or just Naga king. Since we have many Purananuru poets with pure Sanskrit names such as Damodaran,Valmiki, Brahama, Lochana, Parana, Kannadasan (Dayan Kannanar) and Maha chitran, it was not uncommon in those days.

2.Poet Nagarajan refers to Four Vedas and Brahmin’s Three Fires (Garhapatya, Ahavaniyam and Dakshinagniyam) which shows Vedic culture was strongly rooted in Tamil Nadu ( we have other refences to Yupa pillar everywhere, Rajasuyam, eagle shaped fire altar of Karikalan)

The poem reflects Kalidasa’s description of the Himalayas in Kumarasambhavam and other works. The deer are taking rest in the Ahramas of seers where they enjoy the warmth of Sacred fire.

4.Another very interesting point is the reference to Pancha bhutas. We see it in the Vedas. And the ancient Sanskrit literature always compare the Pancha Bhutas with five qualities of a King. It shows that the thought process was the same from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.

5.There is a debatable reference to Mahabharata war. Chera King praised as one who provided food for the combatants during the great war. The Tamil word used in the poem is ‘Perun Choru’ (Big food or feast). The word is not found nowhere else. Since Mudi Nagarajan was part of Second Tamil Sangam, commentator thought that the king lived during very old time. Linguistics or historic chronology wouldn’t allow any such interpretation. Language is very simple and it cannot be as old as 3102 BCE. If Uthiyan Cheran lived around that time we need a long list of Chera kings to fill the time gap. We didn’t have such a king list. Chera king Uthiyan cheral was also sung by Mamulanar, another popular poet.

Then what is Big Rice or Big Food or Big Feast

Actually, on the death anniversary of big leaders, people are fed to keep their memory or sacrifice alive It is just an Anna Dana like Saivite Guru pujas. Since the word is not used anywhere else in Tamil, no one could say whether it is right or wrong. But the language of the poem and the history of Tamil kings provide us enough clues.

6.The order of or the origin of Five elements (Pancha Bhutas) is in ‘Andhati’ style. Not only the style, the matter agrees with the Sanskrit scriptures.

The golden Himalayas (Kanchan Srnga which is called Kanchen Janga now) is mentioned in Kalidasa’s work. Elsewhere I have given it as a proof for Kalidasa’s age. He lived before Sangam Tamil period.

9.Last but not the least there is an indirect reference to Agastya in the poem. Why did the poet compare Himalayas and Pothiya Hills? Pothiya Hills is the southern residence of the great seer Agastya who was sent by Lord Shiva to codify a grammar to Tamil language. Researchers say that it happened around 1000 BCE or 700 BCE. So the comparison between Pothiya and Himalayas is a veiled reference to Agastya Muni. Kalidasa refers to Pothiyam and the Himalayas in his Ragu vamsam.

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The are many unsung heroes among Indian poets and one of them was Murugadasa Swamigal of Tamil Nadu. He composed about 100,000 poems. Among them is a remarkable work called ‘Pulavar Purana’ meaning a Purana of Poets. He composed 2828 stanzas on 72 Hindu Poets of Tamil Nadu. He was born in Tirunelveli in 1838 and lived for 60 years. His family gave all the manuscripts to Tamil Pundit of Madras (Chennai) who published all his poems on 72 Tamil poets starting from the legendary Vedic seer Agastya.

Krishnmachari in his first part published in 1901, introduced Murugadasa swamikal with two interesting anecdotes :-

“ Though trustworthy information respecting the gifted poet is wanting, yet the date of his birth in Tirunelveli about 1838 harmonises with what is known of his career and death in the Tamil Vilambi year (1898). The young poet seems to have been a popular favourite and a leader of sports where he resided, but study and writing of poetry were nevertheless more attractive to him than play. He is a remarkable instance of intellectual precocity for he always carried with him his iron pen or stylus and palm leaf ready for use. It is said that he composed, at intervals of play at marbles, before he was ten years old, a short poem ‘Pannirumaalai’ in praise of the 12 powerful arms of the war god Subrahmanya.

When Murugadasa was old enough to leavehome,he visited all famous shrines in India and Sri Lanka and met many religious leaders in monasteries.

Krishnamachari adds,

“ He was cultured and thoughtful and his delicate tact, piety and prudence well fitted him for the task of a biogrpaher. He covered imporatant Saivite and Vaishnavite poets andshowed no hositility towards any sect.He gave the history of Hindu poets leaving out Buddhist and Jain Tamil scholars.

He is known to have visited Madras before he was twenty years old and to have astonished a earned audience in Kandaswami Temple by his elquent exposition and ready powers of versification.

He is said to have composed no less than a lakh of verses consisting mainly of hymns and sacred legends of gods. I have given the list of Tamil Books in my Tamil version of this article). His greatest and most original work is ‘Pulavar Puranam’ (Legend of the Poets). It may be placed as a monumental work by itself, charming in all freshness and vivecity.

In short Murugadsa seems to have offended none and instructed many till his demise in sixtieth year in his clay built cloister in a little village of Tiruvamaattur in South Arcot.

Metrical Biographies of Tamil Poets

V Krishnamachariar published all the 2828 veses in three volumes from 1901 to 1906. Here is the list of all the 72 poets covered in his work:-

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Translated by M Gopalakrishnan of Madurai 100 years ago!

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY PROFILE

SHELLYEY, English Poet, Novelist and Essayist

Born August 4, 1792

Died July 8, 1822

Age at death 29

P B Shelley was one of England’s greatest Romantic poets. He was born into a wealthy noble family. He was educated at Eton college, where his radical views on politics and religion earned him a nick name ‘Mad Shelley’. While still at Eton and aged just 18, he published his first book, a gothic horror novel called Zastrozzi. In 1811 he was expelled from Oxford University for writing an anti-Christian pamphlet.

The same year 19 year old Shelley shocked his family even more by secretly marrying 16 year old Harriet Westbrook. This was the start of Shelly’s adventurous life of elopements and restless travels. Three year later Shelley eloped with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, who became Mary Shelley and who wrote the famous novel Frankenstein. Harriet killed herself in 1816, and Shelley married his new love. Mary and Shelley moved around constantly; they travelled around Europe and lived in many different towns in England. Shelley wrote his poetry in short bursts of intense creativity. His poems such as Alastor and Ozymandias, overflow with intense emotion and radical ideas that were not always appreciated by readers of his time.

In 1818 Shelley and Mary left England to live in Italy. He completed some of his greatest poetry there, including his masterpiece Prometheus Unbound. A few years later, on a short sea voyage along the Italian coast, Shelly’s small sail boat was caught in a storm and he was drowned. He was just 29 years old, but he had written poetry hat established him as one of the greatest English poets.

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“During Bishop Caldwell’s time, Sanskrit enthusiasts argued that Sanskrit was the mother of Tamil language. They showed extraordinary proportion of words of Sanskritic origin in Dravidian vocabulary as a proof. But they did not take into account the dissimilarity of the Dravidian grammatical forms to the Sanskritic forms. Bishop Caldwell had no difficulty in demolishing that theory but he installed in its stead the equally untenable Scythic theory which it took many years of discussion to dislodge from its position. Subsequent workers in the field discovered serious errors in his work. Dr G U Pope is one of the critics.

Dr G U Pope was a distinguished missionary, well versed in Tamil language and literature and he did not accept Caldwell’s theories; and in a series of articles in in the Indian Antiquary he suggested enquiry as to whether in these theories “certain things have not been taken for granted rather too suddenly in regard to the Dravidian dialects. He was the first to point out that the law of harmonic sequence of vowels did not obtain in most of these dialects. He was further of opinion,

1.”that between the languages of Southern India and those of the Aryan family there are many deeply seated affinities;

2.that the differences between the Dravidian tongues and the Aryan are not so great as between the Celtic (for instance) and the Sanskrit; and

3.that, by consequence, the doctrine that the place of Dravidian dialects is rather with the Aryan than with the Turanian family of languages is still capable of defence. He illustrated these positions by means of copious illustrations and pointed out that the resemblances (appeared) most frequently in the more cultivated Dravidian dialects and that the identity was most striking in the names of instruments, places and acts connected with a simple life.

He also promised to consider derivative words in a future paper and to show that the prefixes and affixes were Aryan; but no such papers have been published.

Scythian and Dravidian

The Scythian affinities referred to are the affinities asserted to exist in the Dravidian languages by Bishop Caldwell, who following the Danish philologist Rask, use the term Scythian in the sense of what we have been generally called Turanian – non Aryan and Non Semitic languages. But the editors of Linguistic Survey of India and most of the scholars have rejected this affinity.

Professor J Kennedy wrote that rice, peacock etc. were known to Greeks in the fifth century BCE by their Dravidian (Tamil) names. This was due to Caldwell’s writing who said that these are Tamil words.

Bishop Caldwell was indeed a great magician! He pronounced a spell and there sprung up a vision of Phoenician sea men voyaging with Solomon’s servants down the West coast of India to Ophir once in three years to bring gold, silver, algum, peacocks and apes. This vision still fascinates some Dravidian scholars, though it had been pointed out that Hebrew ‘algum’ was not wanted for its scent, but to be used as props and pillars for which sandalwood was wholly unfitted, that peacocks could be had in plenty in Gujarat, and that there was no gold or silver for export from India. The whole vision rests on Bishop Caldwell’s opinion that ‘oryza’ (rice) algum and tawas (Tuki=Tokai= tawas=peacock) are derived from Tamil words. It is time that the spell is broken”.